Red Pepper’s race section: open editorial meeting 24 May

On May 24th, we’ll be holding the third of Red Pepper’s Race Section Open Editorial Meetings.

The Meetings are designed to offer a space where BAME writers can come together to reflect on what’s been happening in the world, what it means to us and how we can set the agenda for Red Pepper’s newly established race section to respond.

Our hope is that these meetings will be intergenerational, intersectional and inclusive, and that out of the conversations that happen here, new solidarities can be created and a new political consciousness can be borne.

Concretely, these meetings are a space where writers, whatever your level of experience, can pitch an idea for an article, receive immediate feedback from the group, and get a clear sense of ways Red Pepper can help you reach an audience.

At the present time, there are 3 basic avenues available to us:

ONLINE PUBLICATION (UNPAID)

PRINT PUBLICATION (UNPAID)

RED PEPPER BLACK JOURNALISM FUND COMMISSIONING (PAID)

In the case of articles published online, there’s scope for participants to exercise collective autonomy in deciding what should be published and an essentially unlimited opportunity in terms of the volume of content that potentially could be published.

In the case of articles published in the bi-monthly print edition of Red Pepper, decision-making lies with the Red Pepper Editorial Collective to whom the Race Editor will endeavour to represent the balance of opinion expressed during Race Section Open Editorial Meetings about which articles/issues should be prioritised but where final decision will be taken by that issue’s lead co-editor. We might, however, expect to see at least 1-2 articles per issue dedicated to Race.

The August/September print edition of Red Pepper will pursue the theme of alternatives to neoliberalism, so ideas in relation to this subject will be very welcome on 24 May.

Red Pepper has long been a volunteer-led project and is not, by-and-large, able to pay its writers but a new crowd-funded black journalism fund has created the opportunity for a limited number of paid writing assignments to be commissioned at the discretion of the Race Editor.

The intention behind Red Pepper’s Black Journalism Fund Commissioning is to support long-form reportage (2-3000 words) that sheds light on unreported aspects of the contemporary black experience. (For more insight into what this means to us, check out: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/from-the-frontlines/) We currently have the capacity to fund one such piece of reportage per month.

In terms of getting involved, you don’t need to know yet exactly where or how your idea will end up, but if you have an idea and you want to write it, then drop a line to ashishghadiali@gmail.com.

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